Improvement in sewing-machines



C; ANDRUS. SEWING MACHINE.

No.'18,566. Patented Nov, 3, l1857.

"UNITED STATES c. H. .i ANDRUs, or GosHEN, NEW YORK, AssicNon To seinen PATENT OEEICE.

IMPROVEMENT IN SEWING-MACHINES.

Specification forming' part of Letters Patent No. 18,566, dated November 3, 1R57.

,the top 7 feed, which. consists, principally, ol'

a plate having a roughened or serrated face,

and having a reciprocating motion over the cloth or other material to be sewcd, and which, owing wholly or inpart to the formation of the Toughened or serrated face, slides over the maitcrial in moving in one direction, but bites it in moving in thcopposite direction, and thus moves it upon the table or bed upon or against whose face it is supported. A i The improvement consists in the employment, fitted within an opening provided for it in the aforesaid reciprocating fcedplate con-. stituting the principal portion of the top feed,

of a supplementary serrated feedingplate having springs applied between it and the principal feeding-plate in such a manner as to give it a const-ant and independent pressure upon the materia-l, and thereby to insure its biting and moving the 'material during the' whole of thc movement of the. said principal plate in that direct-ion in which'ihc material is intended to be moved, which the said 1principal plate, owing to the peculiar character of the movcment sometimes imparted to it, often fails to do, and hence fails to give a uniform feed movement to the material. By my improvement the uniformity of the feed movement ren dcred infallible.

Figure I in the accompanying drawings is a side view of a top feedwith my improvement applied, shown on an enlarged scale. Fig. 2"is a section of the same in a place parallclwith Fig. l and with the direction o1 thefeed. Fig. 8 is a section of the same, taken transversely to Figs. 1 and 2 in the plane indicated -by the line x .r in those iigures. Fig. 4 is a perspective view of the same,of the natural size.

Similar letters -of reference indicate corresponding parts in the. several figures.V

A is the principal feeding-plate, and the f Smith, 1857,

a, the said projections, however, allowing its.-

serrated lower surface to drop somcdistance' below the lower surface of A.,vas shown in Fig. 2. This feeding-plate B contains a slot, c, extending in a direction vparallel with; the feed movement', for tlieneedle to work through.

l d are two springs attached to the feedingplate A and its leg C, and pressing downward npon the plate B.

e is a guide for the spring d'. rlhe operation of the surplementary feeding plate B is illustrated in Figs. 1 and 2, in the. l

former of which the feeding-plate A is represented as moving back -in the opposite direction to that required for the feed, and in the latter as moving forward in the direction re quired for the feed. The inclination of the teeth on the supplementary feeding-plate B, being made in the direction to make them bite when moving in the direction of the arrow shown in Fig. 2, allows the springsd d to force them into the material, which is shown inredv outline, when moving i`n that direct-ion, but allows the teeth to force up the springs and slide over the surface of the material when' moving in theopposite direction, as is illus t1-ated in the two views above. mentioned.

I am aware that in the sewing-machinc of A. B. `Wilson, patented ,1854, a trifpronged springprcssure pad is employed. The central prong'of this pad presses or holds the cloth against the periphery of the feed-wheel. I disclaim the spring-pressure pad, and also the holding of the cloth against the feed-wheel-bjr a spring. In the device ot'said Vilson the pressure-pad is stationary, the feeding of the cloth being accomplished by a serrated wheel. I am also awa-re that in the deviceof- E. H. thcprcssure-pad is slotted, and has a separate spring within the slot, which presses the cloth upon a horizont-ally1noving dog. The cl oth -is i'ed by said dog, which is be- L low the table. My invention'appertains only -to machines in which the feeding is done by a The employment of a supplementary serrated feeding-pianeti?, n'tted Within a slot in the prim cipal feeding-plate and provided with shoulders b b, and being` controlled entirelybysprings d d', applied between it and the principal feeding-plate, so as to operate substantially as herein described.

C. H. ANDRUS. XVitnesses: JOHN E. HOWELL, ALVIN PEASE. 

